Monday:
SelfDesign has OFFICIALLY started! I basically did the same thing I did every day, though. I did math (about surface integrals) and science (about thermodynamics).
Tuesday
Today, I had a Gr. 8-9 Themes meeting on SelfDesign! That went from 10 to 11, and I enjoyed it because it was fun! It was basically just meeting up with the other kids in my grade, but yeah! Then I had violin class, and I had to look at the resources from the gr. 8-9 Themes… so I ran out of time to do anything except writing. ._. I got a cool “globe” that spins, though! I put quotes around “globe” because it’s a globe of Jupiter, not Earth. Anywho, it’s really cool, and it’s a birthday present! (I know, kinda late.) I also got dominoes on my birthday though… Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday:
I got my COVID-19 second dose vaccine on Tuesday, so these three days were a recovery for me! I did… Math and science… I also coded… as always.
Hi Ethan and family,
Thank you for your first Observing for Learning Ethan, and thanks to your parents for their updates on your summer. It was exciting to read about all the math and physics you are learning! The Jupiter globe is extremely neat, and a great late birthday gift. Congratulations on getting your second vaccine — getting mine felt pretty momentous. It sounds like you had a great summer full of new leadership and learning opportunities, and I look forward to seeing where this year takes you and being with you on your journey!
I’m writing a short response as I work on Learning Plans this week and next. Thank you for sharing about your learning.
Best,
Shannon
We wanted to put down our thoughts and observations from this past summer and specifically, how Ethan spent the summer.
Ethan’s summers are generally a continuation of his learning, rather than traditional “summer break.”
That means he continued following his daily schedule of learning, which included studying math, learning science, doing some research and writing about topics of interest, coding, practicing violin and even taking taekwondo classes. We like the idea of unschooling but also like to have a routine and specific things for Ethan to learn or study. The topics are all things he’s interested in, so it is still student led.
One thing that Ethan did new was an internship with the nature school program he was in. Ethan attended Soaring Eagle Nature School for about 3 years. This past year was his last because the program only goes up to Grade 7.
However, we saw that there was a teen internship program and signed Ethan up. We thought that it would be a good way for Ethan to gain some volunteer experience and to give him more responsibility.
The internship required Ethan to attend a week of day camp and assist with the 6-7 year olds. He was hesitant at first, which is his usual reaction, but decided to give it a try. He ended up loving the experience and completed 3 weeks of camps in total.
After the first session, we asked for feedback to help us understand what Ethan did and to help him improve.
What he learned was that he couldn’t be a participant in the camp. He had to learn how to have fun with the kids but still be a teacher/leader.
Ethan was also accepted into a taekwondo leadership training program. The program will teach Ethan how to lead and teach the taekwondo classes and eventually, he will be allowed to assist in the classes. This program is open to black belts and participants are chosen by the head teacher. The teacher selects participants by looking at a student’s commitment, discipline and maturity.
We mentioned responsibility, and this is something we’ve been working with Ethan to improve because he’s now a high schooler. He’s actually been trying to be more mature and responsible on his own, as well. For example, he’s trying to be more disciplined when it comes to completing his daily learning and not getting distracted or not completing his tasks.
Some other areas include helping out more around the house, going jogging or walking on his own each morning before breakfast, walking to the community centre by himself for taekwondo lessons, and even stopping at the grocery store on the way home to buy snacks.
When we talk to him, he’s working on expressing his thoughts more clearly, rather than giving short responses that only he understands. This is especially helpful when we talk to him about what he’s been learning or an activity he did because it was sometimes hard to get him to clearly and patiently explain what he did.
Ethan has also been working on self-monitoring his study habits because of Minecraft. Ethan has been wanting to play Minecraft on and off for about 5 or 6 years, but we’ve always been hesitant to allow him. Part of the reason is that we feel that being creative in the real world provides greater value than a virtual world programmed with limitations.
We also feel that other online programs Ethan’s been using, such as Algodoo, Powder and even Scratch (coding program), have enabled him to be creative and only limited by his imagination.
We understand the social aspect of Minecraft, but we’re still concerned with screen time. Since Ethan learns almost exclusively in front of a screen, we had concerns about additional time playing Minecraft.
But recently, Ethan has asked to play Minecraft again because his friends are still playing. And along with seeing that there’s an SD Minecraft group, we’ve decided that he can play but would have to meet certain conditions first. So Ethan has agreed to be disciplined with his computer time and show that he can manage his time by completing his learning tasks without getting distracted.
He has to do this daily for 3 months because 3 months is how long it typically takes to ingrain a habit. It’s been about 15 days now, and he’s been doing pretty well. If everything works out, he’ll be playing Minecraft by the beginning of December.
Along with a greater sense of responsibility, we are also seeing more pushback. We have always had a good relationship with him in terms of communication and how close we are as a family, so we hope that that will make it easier as Ethan continues to grow into his teenage years.
So although Ethan had a fairly typical summer, he had some new experiences in terms of responsibility and duty.
We’re very much looking forward to this school year to see how Ethan further develops and grows as a person.
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